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(Guardian) – DAVID CAMERON launched the Conservative election manifesto today with a direct appeal to “working people” who feel abandoned by Labour and idealists who would be disappointed by the Liberal Democrats.

In the symbolic setting of Battersea power station, which is set to be the focus of a regeneration project, the Tory leader cast himself as a unifying national figure and said his party had abandoned its unpopular recent past.

“In every area, on every issue, our modern Conservative values are clear,” Cameron said in a lengthy speech on a platform in front of his shadow cabinet, who sat among young supporters.

“No more narrow focus on a few issues. No more harking back to bygone days.”

Cameron, who needs to secure the biggest swing to his party since 1931 to win a parliamentary majority of just one, said the Tories could now appeal beyond their core support.

“We stand for the working people that Labour has abandoned with their jobs tax and their waste,” he said. “We stand for the idealists that the Liberal Democrats will inevitably disappoint because they cannot win this race.”

The Tories – who need to gain 116 seats to form a government – hope the central pitch of the party’s manifesto will win back middle Britain voters who have abandoned them over the past decade.

Cameron summed up his “big society” theme, which will involve the most extensive devolution of power in a generation, by issuing an invitation to the British people to join him in governing the country.

“Manifestos, policies, acts of parliament – all these things are powerful, but not as powerful as acts of people,” he said, warning that Britain could only deal with its debts and broken society if people joined together.

“We can restore faith in our shattered political system. But only if millions of people are fired up and inspired to play a part in the nation’s future.

“Yes, it is an invitation to the whole nation: we’ll give you the power, so you can take control … Let’s make this the biggest call to arms the country has seen in a generation.”

The Tory leader quoted John F Kennedy’s famous challenge to the American people in his 1961 inaugural address.

“As a great American president once said: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.’ So, ask what you can do for your country – and, yes, for your family and for your community too.”

In a sign of the impact of the US on Tory thinking, Cameron used the opening words of the US constitution, “we, the people”, as a refrain in his speech as he challenged both the left and the right.

“It’s time to say to Labour: it’s not about you, the government. It’s about we, the people. And it’s time to say to those who think it’s all about unchecked individualism: no, it’s not about me, the individual. It’s about we, the people.”

Cameron served notice that life under a Tory government would not be easy.

He said responsibility would be placed “at the heart of our national life”, leading to two major changes – a more responsible approach to tackling Britain’s record £167bn fiscal deficit and greater responsibility in tackling social breakdown.

“When I am asked questions about the budget deficit and about spending, I am very frank with people and I do say: ‘Yes we are going to increase health spending by more than inflation, but that is not as much as recent years and it will mean we have to be efficient and effective in the way we run the health service,’ he said.

“I do say to people [that] there are difficult decisions we have made about asking people to retire a year earlier, from 2016, about not paying some of the benefits to families earning over £50,000.

“We have said these difficult things because I do want us to take the country with us in dealing with the budget deficit … I think the public have heard that from the Conservatives, they know we get it, they know we understand what a deep hole the country is in and difficult decisions have to be made.

“I think we are in a much better place than any other party because we were more straightforward more quickly about what needed to be done.”

It contained familiar policies to devolve power, such as allowing voters to hold a referendum on any local issue if they could win the support of 5% of the local population.

The Tories also issued a second document, entitled the Road to the Manifesto. This was designed to show that the manifesto was the result of four and half years work since Cameron became the Tory leader in late 2005.